RG Kar fiasco: Junior doctors to continue 'cease work' as Bengal CS 'refuses' to record meeting minutes

Kolkata, Sep 19 : West Bengal Junior Doctors' Forum (WBJDF), the umbrella body spearheading the medics' protests against the ghastly rape and murder of a junior doctor at the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital here, will continue its 'cease work' demonstration after the crucial meeting with Chief Secretary Manoj Pant on Wednesday failed as the latter reportedly refused to make a formal record of the minutes of the meeting.

The differences of opinion between the representatives of WBJDF and the state government could be felt after the formal meeting, which started at 7.30 p.m. on Wednesday, concluded within little over two hours and the deliberations between the two parties over finalising the minutes of the meeting continued for over three hours after the conclusion of the meeting.

Finally, a little after 12.30 a.m. on Thursday, the WBJDF delegation members came out of the state Secretariat -- the meeting venue, and explained how the state government's "reluctance" to get the minutes of the meeting recorded and signed by all the participants from both sides "resulted into the meeting being unfruitful".

"The state government gave us verbal assurances to fulfil some of our unresolved demands. But it refused to get it recorded. The Chief Secretary has asked us to send a draft of the minutes of the meeting from our end by email tomorrow (Thursday). We will first go back to our demonstration site in front of the state Health Department headquarters at Salt Lake, have a general body meeting with all demonstrators and then decide our next course of action," said a representative of the 30-member delegation of WBJDF.

"The outcome of the meeting was highly frustrating since we just got verbal assurance. There was no written assurance," another member of the delegation said.

None of the participants from the state government side attending the meeting had given any reaction about the proceedings of the meeting till the time the report was filed.